A Fairy Tale for Librarians
by Tsukiko Lily
Summary: The magic of books is as such: to visit the same place over and over again and always return to find it unchanged. Entry for Rune Haven's 4th writing contest. Nice if you want slow slice-of-life boringness. Also, Russell. Again.


Author's Note:** This is actually something I wrote for Rune Haven's monthly writing contest. The theme, of course, is "fairy tale," and of **_**course**_** that made me think "Russell, Ceci, and Tori!" It's also not the best thing I've ever written, and I don't expect to win anything, but the theme sounded like fun so I gave it a shot. ^^; As you can probably tell, I love writing about Russell. He just strikes me as very introspective and interesting for some reason.**

**Warnings:** One very very mild curse towards the beginning, but honestly, this is probably the tamest thing I've written so far. Ok, and I'll give a warning for fluff. And for everyone's dialog being written somewhat incompetently. XD

**Obligatory Disclaimer:** If I were in any way involved in the creation of any Rune Factory games, I would be promptly fired for giving the in-game books really stupid names and making everything boring. Hooray. ^^

******

**A Fairy Tale for Librarians**

Russell had never been much of a morning person. It was a time he reserved for groggily staring at the oppressively bright world beyond the wavy glass of the library windows, the sun burning white-hot squares of light on to the shiny wooden floorboards. Even the books were gleaming, sunshine bouncing enthusiastically off the gold embossing on the spines, like something he would have found beautiful, even if it proved painful or blinding.

But mornings are never beautiful to those who haven't slept, and on this particular morning, Russell counted himself among those ranks. _Or perhaps,_ he thought, correcting himself, _I'm among the ranks of people who slept for two or three hours before being expected to run a goddamn library._ But the distinction between sleeping just a little and not sleeping at all was becoming meaningless to him as the years went by. He had always somewhat resented his need for sleep and the way it tended to interrupt the very important business of living (to say nothing of reading), but he now found himself lamenting something entirely new; its apparent tie to aging. In his youth, Russell loved to stay up long in to the night studying things that interested him or pouring over volumes of old stories, and by the time he finally finished up, there was never much time left over for sleeping. This practice gave him a somewhat tired look, but he always woke up feeling energetic as ever. People used to laugh at him and give him some kind of "just wait until you get older" speech, but the only time not sleeping did him any harm was in the military, and in those days it wasn't uncommon for him to stay up for nights and nights on end. Naturally, it came as a surprise when his body suddenly refused to function without a full night's sleep, seemingly as soon as he hit thirty. He eventually had to get used to this "go to bed when you're tired" nonsense, but there was still one book that could make him lose all sense of fatigue, or even time.

The book in question was currently being put to use as a shield against the sun, opened across his face as he leaned back in his chair behind the counter. But the night before, it was serving its intended purpose as a book, and a fascinating one at that. Even now, he felt his fuzzy brain drifting over its contents. He couldn't exactly say it was his _favorite_ book, since it didn't contain much in the way of either story or concrete fact, both very important to him, but it did serve the very important purpose of wish-fulfillment, it being, essentially, a book about books.

Whenever he was feeling down, or even particularly bored, Russell would head for the stacks and seek out this particular volume, admiring its sturdy and beautifully decorated cover, and how the somewhat archaic script revealed it to be impressive in both its age and its wonderfully preserved state, compelling him to be somewhat overcautious in handling it. It was an illuminated manuscript, and beautifully made. He would stare at the colored drawings of people wandering down hallways and removing books from shelves, books that could very well have been as beautiful as the one he was holding, or at least he liked to think so. He would browse the text with a sense of wonder at the things described within, rows and rows of shelves and shelves of magnificent books, historic chronicles and biographies, some of them concerning figures, places, and events he'd never heard of, compilations of tales and legends, endless tomes on the magics and sciences, instructional manuals of all types. This excited him like nothing else. Those books, after all, probably had all kinds of lost stories and knowledge, to say nothing of directions for things the whole world had forgotten how to do. If he could only find it, just think of all he could learn! The only problem with this plan was that he didn't have a way of knowing if even a single word of it was true. Nothing in the book mentioned the location of the grand library in question, and there was no hint as to the author. The only words on the cover were the title, _Splendid Archives_. He liked to think that it was written by an unknown scholar, who just happened to be none other than himself, in a former life. This made him go day-dreamy, just like his daughter did when re-reading her favorite fairy tale, _Kingdom of Crystal Caves_. And that was just what he was doing at this moment, distracted with mental pictures of himself wandering that opulent building in old-fashioned clothing, carrying a satisfyingly heavy stack of wonderfully bound--

That was when the door opened. Startled by the sound, Russell removed the book from its perch on his face, sat up alertly, and moved his glasses in to their proper place.

"Oh! …Hello, Tori."

His assistant stood near the entrance, that infernal white-gold sun catching a sort of halo of stray blonde hair, making her look like some kind of confused pixie.

"…I-I see you've been reading that book again?"

His exhausted appearance had betrayed him. He then realized that it also might have been the fact that he was still holding it.

"I have, yes."

"Anything… New?"

"Not that I've noticed."

Russell had a project he picked up from time to time concerning _Splendid Archives_ and its validity, and Tori seemed to enjoy checking up on it from time to time. So far, he had only seen one reference that did any more than mention it, and that was a chapter in another favorite book of his, _Mysteries of Adonea_, concerning its unknown origins and also containing a bit of speculation as to the identity of its elusive author. Needless to say, it was interesting but ultimately unhelpful, and it seemed to have been written by some poor soul who was just as obsessed and confused about the whole matter as he was.

"I l-like to think it was right by the ocean…"

Russell shook his head. Tori seemed to be falling in to one of those bizarre Magic Shape-Shifting Dolphin fantasies of hers. But he supposed that a library right by the beach would be a nice idea nonetheless.

"I guess that's a good thought, yes."

Without another word, Tori set to work dusting and reshelving books. Russell started to settle in to the peaceful lazy rhythm of another day at the library, and began to straighten up a few things on and behind the counter. A small thump upstairs signaled Cecilia's awakening, just as it did every morning. With things looking tidier, he stood to pace the stacks, taking yet another "last" look for some proof of the existence of that library of libraries. A pair of little feet pattered down the stairs.

"Hi dad! Are you looking for it again?"

Russell startled slightly.

"…What?

"A book about that book about all those books. The one you really REALLY like!"

Both the sentence and his daughter's inexplicable morning chipperness took a moment to settle in.

"I… Yes, I am."

"…And you haven't found it yet!? You look a LOT!"

"Well if it was here all along, I wouldn't want to miss it, so it's good to check for it now and then."

"I bet you'll find it then…" Her expression changed to something between shocked and extremely impressed. "…Or else you'll keep looking forever and get old!"

"Hey! That's not very encourag--"

Before he could finish his reply, Cecilia had scampered off to say hello to Tori, and, as was typical for her, "hello" turned in to a ramble about every single thing she had done that week, including a few things she had misremembered or outright made up and a description of a rock that managed to be both incredibly detailed and impossible to understand. Tori took this in stride, nodding along politely as she worked. Then things got a lot quieter, and Russell tilted his head to one side. Something was obviously transpiring.

First, Ceci gasped, and stopped talking for several seconds. She then leaned in to Tori and seemed to say something urgent. Tori jumped backward, dropping a cookbook she had been carrying.

"…G-go tell your father!"

Russell didn't have time to speculate before the elven child darted over to him.

"Daddy! There are more books in your room!"

"That's my bookshelf, remember? I've read all of those and you've read some of them, too. I don't think any of them mentioned the Archives…"

Cecilia shook her head.

"No! Up in the trunk!"

"The… Trunk? The one where I keep clothes? I don't think I ever put a book in there, but we can go look if you…"

"No, the other trunk!"

"The other… Wait, you mean _that_ trunk? That was locked when we got here. And I don't think the key…"

"I'll show you!"

With that, Cecilia darted up the stairs. Brimming with curiosity, Russell and Tori followed.

******

Russell Watched Cecilia run to her nightstand and open a small box, the one she used for little things she found in her daily adventures. After a bit of rummaging, she pulled out a key and handed it to her father. Russell stared at it in disbelief, then adjusted his glasses. _…What do you know, it's still a key!_ He was beaming.

"Ceci, where did you find this!?"

"I was under my bed playing Crystal Caves and I found this key, right? So I pretended it was the key to the gates of the kingdom, and then when I was done playing I wondered what it was really for, so I stuck it in some stuff! And then it went with the trunk and I thought 'hey, what's inside this?' So I opened it and it was books, and I thought you'd like them but I forgot."

"That's… Quite a little story. But I'm glad you finally remembered! Now, let's get a look at those books…"

Russell walked over to the trunk, which had been serving as just another table or shelf on which things were placed. After setting aside an empty wine bottle, a small armillary sphere, and some strange clay sculpture Cecilia had made for him, he knelt and slotted the key in to the lock, with both his daughter and his assistant peering over his shoulders as he turned it and lifted the lid.

The contents were pretty much as expected. The books were normal enough, old and somewhat odd-smelling but in good condition. He began unpacking them and placing them in little piles around him. Then he saw something he almost couldn't believe. Tori and Cecilia also looked somewhat taken aback. And unnerved, but that was probably because he had unwittingly screamed out loud. To make sure he saw what he thought he did, he cleaned his glasses, made sure they were on perfectly straight, and reread the title of the book in his hands one more time. _The Lost Library_.

Russell leafed through the tome in his lap and found descriptions of many of the same things he had read in _Splendid Archives_, and a few things he didn't recognize. This book seemed to have come along later. He then happened upon the chapter detailing the Archives' destruction. The sense of excitement he had been riding dropped out from under him, and his mind went blank, and then started to refill with images of burning books. He suddenly found himself having to blink back tears.

"Well, it seems like the book was factual, but I won't be taking that trip I've been looking forward to."

Tori leaned in closer, fiddling with the loose end of he braid.

"Russell…?"

"It… Burned down a few hundred years ago. Maybe I could go see where it was but it's not like there's anything left to read."

"…I w-wanted to go too, you know."

"Yes, I know. Just forget it and get back to work. I'll catch up with you in a while."

Tori made her way down the stairs, and Cecilia followed after. Russell found himself alone with the silence of his room and his own disappointment. He thought about that magical book, and how he'd discovered it at just the right time, how those lingering descriptions of his ultimate fantasy kept his spirits up when he moved to Kardia after the war, cynical and weary. In truth, he never expected to see it in full glory, not after so much time had passed, but he held out hope for at least some ruins he could wander and some scattered pages he could collect. But now he had even lost the _remains_ of a dream. No, he didn't lose them after all. You can only lose things that you had in the first place.

"…Dad?"

Cecilia was standing at the top of the stairs, clutching her copy of _Kingdom of Crystal Caves_.

"Ceci, you know I'd love to read to you, but I have to get back to work in a few minutes."

"I don't have time to read either because I'm going outside. But I do have time to tell you something!"

Cecilia sat down next to Russell, who was starting to feel better, or at least enough to muster some interest in the conversation.

"Ok, what do you want to tell me?"

"Well… Ok, why do you think I read this book so much?"

She held it directly in front of his face.

"…Because you really like it, right?"

"No! …Well, yes! But do you know why else?"

"…I don't know, why?"

"You remember how the book ends, don't you? Ok, so the Runes are stolen from the land, right? And then the caves collapse and the kingdom is destroyed, right? But then at the very end it talks about how as long as all the people who lived and got away from the kingdom remember how beautiful it all was, and tell other people how beautiful it was so they can also remember it and tell people, it'll be like we can all still travel there, right?"

"I remember that, yes. I think I'm following."

"Ok, well, I think books kind of work like that! Even though I know how it ends, and I know I could never go there… Well, I kind of always knew I couldn't go there because it's made up… Anyway, I think that as long as I have the book, I can go again and again. I kind of thought you knew that already because you read that book a LOT! But then it seemed kind of like you hadn't figured it out so I thought I should tell you."

"Ceci, you're one smart kid, you know that?" Russell dried his eyes and smiled. "…No wonder you have such a smart mouth!"

"…Dad!"

Russell laughed. Before he knew it, Cecilia wrapped him in a sort of tackle-hug, then got up and ran to stand beside the stairwell.

"I LOVE you, remember!? But you know, you _should_ get back to work, or else someone will come in with a question about a book or something, and since you're not there they'll try to ask Tori, and she'll stutter, which might make it take a long time, and then they'll get mad and leave."

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen, so I guess I'll have to come down with you, then."

The two of them descended the stairs together.

******

Russell went to bed early that night, eager to make up for the sleep he had missed. As soon as the library doors had been locked and the sun moved beyond the horizon, he slid himself in to his familiar bed, clutching a familiar book. In his mind, he was wandering back to a familiar _place_, a place where he wore strange old clothing and his footsteps snapped purposefully on marble floors as he sought out the perfect book. He was happy to find that, in his head and on the pages, the archives were safe, still splendid as ever. Fire and time couldn't reach them there, but he always could. Suddenly, he was back in his bed again, and very tired, too tired to read or think. He extinguished his lantern, but didn't bother to remove the book from where it rested, open across his chest, and face down, the beautiful pages pressed up against his heart. Whatever moonlight filtered in to the warm darkness of the room was caught and reflected by the gold embossed patterns on the cover. Just below that metallic shimmer, Russell lay protected by a heavy veil of sleep, comforted by the same images he had turned to many times before, only things were different now, almost simpler. What had once been a vessel for his longing became something else entirely, something just as important. Even as a book that outlived the place it described, it had never lost its true purpose. A fairy tale for librarians.


End file.
